Catch-up time

CONFESSIONS OF A LAZY GARDENER
I'll confess it, I am a lazy gardener, BUT putting aside the fact that I don't weed that often and when I do they tend to stay on the spot (if they don't make it to the compost heap), I have infact learned a few great things.

Firstly, aphids love Puha AND they'll leave your lettuce alone if there's Puha about.

Secondly, at least in a greenhouse, if there are weeds growing, the water retention is a lot higher. We've been having terrible problems with dry soil. I was feeding them for between 5 and 10 minutes every night with very high pressure computerised watering system... THERE WAS SO MUCH WATER IT LEFT PUDDLES and yet by 11 the next morning there would be cracks in the super dry soil. We've all been a bit busy lately so no concerted effort in the patch but it has proven to be an effective 'mulch'.


BERRIES
After our WWOOFer in August cut back the berries to next to nothing I was gob smacked to see this growth in the berry cage AND spreading outside of the cage too.

BOLTING PARSLEY
Time for the parsley to bolt and spread seeds... why should I plant it when mother nature does it all for me. See lazy... or perhaps it's just that I suck with growing seeds?

CAPSICUM WORRIES
Our sorry looking capsicum clearly needs some TLC. V has lovingly put some manure near its roots, but given these look sad and there are a few families to feed, I thought I'd get a few more plants. Still I'm not going to pull them out just yet, I am certain they are of more use to us yet.

CHOCOLATE MINT
Thank you Liz Buckley for making me try the chocolate mint in your garden. I loved it so much I went and got a plant for myself. Now nestled amongst the roses and thyme, I am looking forward to it spreading its way across the garden and landing in my teapot.

You could of course, take these words exactly as written, but I'm sure some of you will read plenty into it :)

CORN
Another thing you notice when you're a lazy gardener is how fast things grow... just look at this corn, it's only been three weeks and it has quadroupled in size. Looking forward to when you grow ears :)

LUFA
one of the seedlings I planted in my new seedling house was Lufa. I got six plants in the end and have planted these out in my flower garden for now. Surrounded it with coffee grounds, kindly supplied by Melissa at Calendula Cottage and am going to watch them grow into some fabulous wee Xmas presents for next year.

MANURE DELIVERED
Thank you to Steve who has dropped off some wood shavings / manure mix from the horse stable just down the road. Now to chuck it into the tyres and grow our pumpkins.

MONTYS SURPRISE APPLE
I was lucky enough to be a member of the Tree Lovers Club when the Monty's Surprise Apple Tree was discovered and a special grafting project started to save it. I bought a couple of trees, one for me and one for a friend. I got it in the ground a little late frankly and over summer,it pretty much died, despite my constant feeding. However, Monty has given me a second surprise. Take a look at how much re-growth we have this year... more than what it had on it when I first got it.

SEGAL PASSIONFRUIT
Our family name for our Passionfruit is Segal, thanks to the Segal family who got it for us for Christmas last year. We received two, when they were around about 15-20 cm tall. One is now well over my head and incredibly bushy and as you can see by these wonderfully unusual flowers, we are about to get a harvest from them. :)

PEAS ARE PODDING
Ladies, Ladies, the peas are ready. We can start eating them now in the shells OR wait a little while to take 'em out. Stir-fries here we come. Personally I can not stand those hard little peas we get in the freezer bags at the supermarket... BUT THIS IS AMAZING.

POPPIES
After hundreds of poppies sprouted, I killed a whole pile with my lovely seedling house plastic cover and I managed to plant about six in the ground. Here's hoping these will take well and self-seed next year.

ROSES
Every year these beauties come up and every year I am astounded by their beauty. I tried to copy them one year on a cake for my Nana, but as much as I like my work, they are just nothing in comparison to the real thing.

SILVERBEET PATCH
Well, after spreading the compost / mulch my brother in law bought around and throwing in a couple of silverbeet seedlings, I had wondered if it was worth it at all... but look at what's happening out there... OK so there are some horrible weeds too, but the silverbeet is ten times as large (those that took) AND there are a couple of rogue potatoes growing from last years harvest. Lazy yet successful, I am pleased :)

SUNFLOWERS
After a 'false start' with the sunflower seedlings being eaten by slugs /snails, I am happy to report that the second batch we put in (and surrounded with coffee grounds) has grown twenty times as tall and thriving in the spot that we think glysophate was thwarting growth in our beetroot... if you ask me the beetroot looks happier too

Latest update...

SEEDLING HOUSE
Recently I was lucky enough to have a lovely couple from Germany stay with us on the WWOOFing programme. Franzi was a great help in the garden and paddock and a lovely person to spend time with. Her boyfriend Benni came to stay toward the end of the visit, and with such a handy skill as carpentry, I could not hold back in asking if he would build me a 'frame' to put my seedling trays into. He obliged and less than a week later I have built a plastic 'tent' for it. My daughter Lottie and I planted a whole pile of flower seeds that are sprouting nicely. I did however find a petrified slug that managed to get up to the top shelf. Better take the roof off in the day time or I'll kill my seeds.

CORIANDER /BASIL
The coriander and basil that was planted in the box is growing nicely next to the lettuce. The chives planted at the same time though aren't doing so well... there is one seedling that's come out of at least 100 seeds (yes I go for overkill)

DWARVES ARE CLIMBING - BEANS
So when I first planted the bean seeds, I am certain it said dwarf.. yet they are looking awfully like climbers, so in went the frames. A few will need to be moved as we don't really want them entwining themselves around the cucumbers.

CARROTS STILL A PROBLEM - GH ROOF CONCEPT
I am so sick to death of carrots at the moment. My toilet paper tape has only had minimal success. I happened to have a friend Sarah over today and after listening to my carrot stories and the fact that the dirt seems to be drying up so quickly, reminded me that the Greenhouse roof only went on a year ago... ah, click, penny dropped of cuorse, the old roof had 'mildew' or shall we call it a natural UV protection on it. Of course the plastic used is supposedly UV resistant too, but perhaps we need a coat of 'grub' on it yet. Must get on to that mulch/manure mix.

TOMATOES TWO LEAVE NOW THRIVING
A little while back, we gave in to the tomatoes that were only growing to two leaf stage and planted them anyway. I am thrilled to report that these are doing fantastically.

ZUKES STILL NOT GREAT - 6 PLANTED IN gh ONLY 2 COME UP
Sadly the slugs seem to be getting the zucchini seedlings. there is still one on each mound though. Perhaps we need to bite the bullet and buy the seedlings.

GUY FAWKES MUMMIES N GUMMIES MEETING
Guy Fawkes seemed like a fantastic time to get the families together for a do. We did the usual Kiwi BBQ approach where everyone bought a plate and figured everyone should bring a small amount of fireworks. Dinner was great, the volleyball game was played yet we're not really sure who 'won' and 1.5 hours of fireworks is probably a bit much for the kids. All in all a great success.

YAMS LOVING POSITION
Look at these yams, aren't they happy... now, only about 4 months left apparently.

ROGUE GARLIC
Last year I planted garlic here... collected the seed as it did absolutely nothing underground. My darling daughter distributed the seeds all over the floor one day and my dog found them there... so I didn't think I'd have any luck this year... however, it appears I didn't get them all before the seed fel to the ground, so lucky for me I have some rogue garlic's. Looking forward to them doing 'something' this year.

FLOWERS IN THE SEEDLING HOUSE
It's only been a few days and I have at least 100 poppies coming up in trays... so excited, I have never planted a flower garden but don't want to buy the plants. I have a huge gaden and not a great deal of money to spend on it. There is also 1 lufa, 1 soapwart, 2 marshmallow coming up... now hopefully the echinacea, feverfew, bells of ireland do something as well... although I may have fried them eysterday in the little sun-house.

THYME REVERTED
For a few years now I have had two types of thyme in the garden, only this year the variegated thyme seems to have reverted back to its original self. Quite frankly I am glad as the leaf is far softer and palatable.

Internet is running poorly from my house so images will be added later.

CORN SEEDS AND WEEDING

Today I planted corn in spleft over space in the vege patch. We originally had two rows of corn, but in hind-sight, that probably isn't enough for six families. Still the left overs in teh seed packet were not enough to fill the space so have to get another packet of Yates Corn seeds to fill it up.


I also started the arduous and never ending task of weeding the garden by house (again) with my WWOOFer Franzisca's help. Such a lovely young lady and it is a real shame that her visit has come to an end.


THIRD MEAL

When we were in the garden 'tidying up', we noticed the abundance of beetroot leaves, knowing that they can be used in salads we were wondered if older leaves could be used for anything. I think sometimes you ponder things at just the right time... as my wwoofer Franciska said, that she has sautee'd them with onions and put cream with them... so that night we gave it a try and I have to say I loved it. We had only sour cream at the time and it was fantastic, I loved it and would defini do it again... cream, sour cream, yoghurt or cream cheese would work fine. At the same time I made sage & oregano gnocchi (from scratch), also a fantastic dish thanks to Cindy making it when she was here.


SALAD GREENS

Now that the initial bulk planting of seeds has occurred my planter box is all mine again. I now have in my planter box, lettuce, basil, corriander and chive seeds. Already the lettuce and basil are showing.

CONTEMPLATING COFFEE
Over night it suddenly dawned on me that one of the mum’s in our new entrant class at school (with my 2nd son just starting) owns one of our local cafe’s.

Next morning I found her and she is happy to store up their coffee beans for us, and also the scrap food for the pigs/chickens… now I just need to find a whole pile of buckets.

For anyone travelling near Waiuku or the Glenbrook Steam Train (very close by), they are by far my favourite cafe, not only for the great food, but the setting is so lovely. Take a look at their facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Calendula-Cottage-Cafe-and-Gardens/154673477902098?sk=wall


PEPPERMINT TEA

One of the most lovely treats that my visitors have given me was a use for peppermint.

For Xmas last year I was given a peppermint plant, from a family visiting from Israel. Through them I was introduced to peppermint tea and frankly it is amazing.

Now that my plant has grown big enough to start using more frequently I am very excited… So much so today’s Mummies in Gummies ‘meeting’ I got the old Baileys teapot out to enjoy a brew.

MANURE

Liz and V talked about getting the horse manure today… after V left, she decided to go and scope out her source… LUCK… there was some sitting by the side of the road. She managed to pack in 5 bags and Liz ran up and managed another 8. Will be great in the compost and in the garden.

Although the stuff we need for between the rows etc is the sawdust or hay the horse farms take out of the stables. This is what we really need on the tops of the tyres to grow our pumpkins… MUST GET ONTO THAT.


MORE PLANTING

Remember we are feeding 28 people…. so yes more planting

This time a few extra potatoes in the area’s that didn’t seem to take. A few more peas, the odd onion seedling that did actually grow, Pak Choi and low-growing silverbeet.

the pumpkin plantings got another step closer. The tyres are now full of stuff to be compostede and in a few days ‘fingers crossed’ we will have horse manure / saw dust delivered to pop on top to grow out pumpkins in.

The plan is to grow them vertically, but of course it wouldn’t matter if it grew over the compost too.

We girls have had great giggles over the potential use of our old bras ;)

WATER TESTING

No I don’t mean the pH levels… but rather whether water is simply getting through the sprinklers.

Even after Trina’s great effort five of the sprinklers were blocked with ‘new’ algae.

Poor Liz had to stand in the ‘rain’ to see what was and wasn’t working.

At least it was a good day for it.


BAMBOO TEEPEES

Trina and Tania had a great time cleaning the bamboo shafts that Lin's hubby Bill had cut for us. They made a great laugh out of rotating and cutting the bamboo... but I wasn't really privvy to it so I can't quite understand the analogies.

Any way, we made some great teepee type support structures for the peas and beans which are getting up there in size now.